Many motor Vehicles are provided with a park brake that is applied and released by a manually-operated cable. The cable is normally operated by a lever in the form of a foot-actuated pedal lever or a hand-actuated lever that is moved against a return spring to set or apply the park brake. The lever is retained in its actuated position by a latch. Upon release of the latch, the return spring moves the lever to its deactuated position to release the park brake.
Movement of the lever to its deactuated position is usually limited by a rubber stop mounted on the lever or on the vehicle support structure, which somewhat cushions the force of the returning lever. Other means, such as springs, have been proposed for damping this return movement of the lever, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,798 to Porter et al.
Vehicles equipped with cable-operated park brakes are normally shipped from the factory with the operating cable disconnected from the park brake. Upon reaching the selling dealer, the cable is connected to make the park brake operative. It is highly desirable to have the operating lever lightly tension the operating cable in lever deactuated, or park brake off, position to consistently position the lever against the stop in all vehicles. In contrast, connection of the operating cable to the park brake is facilitated by having some slack in the cable.
It is desirable to provide slack in the cable to facilitate connection to the park brake, and yet eliminate this slack for consistent actuation of the lever to operate the park brake. It is also desirable to provide some means for damping the return force of the park brake operating lever when returning to its deactuated position.